New York can't hold a candle to the Bay in terms of sheer, unbridled insanity.
On the evening of April 12th, at New Yorks beautiful Beacon Theater, members of anti-Israel groups including Adalah-NY, the BDS National Committee, the Campaign for the Academic and Cultural Boycott of Israel, Jewish Voice for Peace and Jews Say No gathered to protest popular Israeli Singer Idan Raichel.

On the side for Israel: A woman with a bright, fierce countenance told me she was a ninety-year-old Holocaust survivor. She said: “I will never stop fighting for Israel.” Her sign read: “Boycotting Israel is Racist.”

I love her.

And then there was the woman whom I asked to estimate for me how many pro-Israel demonstrators she thought were there. She said: “Six hundred thousand. Everyone who left Egypt is here today.”

I love her too.

For Israel. There they stood: One Asian woman, one Black woman, several Mizrachi and Arab-looking women and men. People of all ages, including children and teenagers (at least five), but mainly fifty and older were there.

The irony of the so-called "progressive" left protesting Idan Raichel was not lost on Phyllis Chessler, who wrote:

My friends--welcome to Upside-Down Land.

The musician these groups tried to boycott is none other than Idan Raichel, one of Israel’s most popular musicians, and the one most responsible for introducing black and “ethnic” (including Ethiopian, Yemenite, Arab, and Sudanese) music into Israel, and for supporting it globally. I have been told that Reichel used to wear the longest Rastafarian dreadlocks. He is responsible for fusing electronics, Hebrew texts, Arab, and Ethiopian music; he welcomed non-Jewish refugee musicians, including Cabra Casey, from a refugee camp in Sudan.

Anti-Israel activists view the world through a prism of darkness, unable to see the light. The rest of us know better.

Following his winning the award, Keys surprised Raichel with a wonderful 'mazel tov' video, which was screened at the MTV Israel Award Ceremony at the Theater Club in Jaffa, where she lauded her "friend Idan" for "all the incredible work that you do."

"This is an amazing, amazing award," Keys said to Raichel in the video, "which is what you are. But really what you are is just an incredible human being who bridges cultures and promotes tolerance, which there's nothing more important than you and your mission and your work. So congratulations because you inspire me all the time."